wax wings
by aikotters
Summary: Miyano Akemi gets a strange assignment to get close to a high school boy, a seeming nobody. She doesn't mean for it to go the way it does. But then, some things are only destined to go wrong and right all at once. AU, part of sunlight
1. Chapter 1

_Warning for implied violence, lots of cursing, implications of relationships, autistic main character. Please tell me if I need to rate this higher or add warnings._

* * *

Chapter One - Stakeout

The big boss calls rarely, but she always answers when he does. Even when she's dripping wet from a shower and making sure the water doesn't boil over. The voice module is grating to her ears, she could be getting his gender wrong at this point for all she knows.

"You want me to get close to a kid? He's sixteen." She doesn't say she won't do it of course, no one does that and lives. "Seventeen," she corrects herself after reading over the newspaper. "Seventeen years old and seen more dead bodies than a mortician. Is that even safe?"

"He might be useful. He's an observant detective."

"Apparently." Useful means a threat. Useful means disposable. If he wanted the kid, it would be _asset_.

Still, Akemi agrees. What harm could it do? She has plenty of blood on her already. And again, you can't say no in this job unless something conflicts, in which case you still don't say no, you say yes, but and lay out the problem and keep walking. The problem is usually resolved within days or you're left to.

And if it's the big boss, she really can't say no. Which is good. She never really wants to anyway. The less her baby sister knows about how deep she really is, the better.

So she sets to finishing her dinner, folds the paper away, and turns the TV on loud to a mindless gossip channel, away from the teenage detective's face already there.

* * *

Finding him isn't hard. She'd gone to Teitan not too long ago, and their uniforms are such an ugly shade of periwinkle she could see it in her dreams.

She sets herself up at the bench across the street and listens through her headphones, writing out grocery lists and book lists to review. Things to bop her sister about and excuses to give the guard dog to get him to let her out of the cage for a while.

Fuck Gin. Fuck Vodka. Little bottom feeders, threatening to sneak up the pack for nothing more than glory and more blood. She pops a mint to get the memory smell of cigarette out of her throat. And they wanted her baby sister. Akemi shudders to think of what they might _do _with her if she was ever too close. Or if she hadn't already been.

Why the boss wants them to live, she doesn't know. But it won't be for much longer. The ice just needs to get a little thinner for her to crack it.

(Rebellion seeds aren't just seeds. They're already sprouting by the time we feel them.)

When she runs out of mindless tasks, she sets to work on her alibi. Her lies. She's not as good a liar as Shiho, she takes a while and memorizes more slowly, but hers are easier to believe.

When the bell rings, she goes and he never sees her.

He doesn't have to.

* * *

Kudo Shinichi is a sadistic child psychologist's wet dream.

Stopping a kidnapping at four, chasing down mysteries at seven, solving a case on a plane in midair, the list only goes on. He's got so many symptoms of autism, Akemi keeps wondering how much she can dig to get a hold of his medical records or if it got recorded at all. They'd probably say the kid's just had a psychotic break from toddlerhood and is just recovering now or something.

The gossip on the news rags alternated between extolling his genius and mocking his age, his inexperience, his swelled head, cursing his lack of empathy or regard for the accused.

_Idiots, _she thinks, smiling grimly to herself. _The murderers who want sympathy are the most pathetic. They don't need sympathy, they need not to get caught._

Which these ones were if a prodigy could find them.

High school student with fame and prestige? Easy to grab the attention of. She's seen his home on casual walks, giant and lavish and unnecessarily absurd. Probably packed with riches and covered in dust. Maybe four rooms used total. It must be terrible.

All she has to do is wait for him to read the paper.

The call comes within a week of posting the ad. Most people don't worry about it, do it themselves, but a cocky boy with too much space and not enough time would eventually have no choice.

"Hello?" she greets like she doesn't know. (she does, his number's been blasted across the news by more idiots). "How can I help you?"

"Hello, my name is Kudo Shinichi, I'm calling about that ad in the paper for a Miyano-san?" His voice is quieter than she expects, solemn, contained, but a hint of that cocky teenage boy she expects. "Are you still looking for work?"

"Yes!" she squeaks and not because she had forgotten to use an alias. She'd asked and been approved, seeing as no one cared who Miyano Akemi was. "Oh! You're _the _Kudo Shinichi, aren't you?"

He laughs, a little less wary, a little more teenager. "Yeah, I guess, but uh, I didn't really call about that. Are you still interested in the job?"

"Oh _yes_!" She pulls out a pen for her paper. "Wait till I tell my sister! She'll be so jealous! When can we meet for an interview? And where?"

He tells her, still laughing a little, but the sound sounds a bit forced now.

And Akemi continues to smile.

* * *

He doesn't meet her alone. There's a girl his age at another table with _her friend _and they're looking over at the two of them like something will explode or clothes will start flying off.

Kudo Shinichi, dressed neatly in his school uniform, merely looks annoyed about it all. He's very readable.

Thankfully, Akemi's perfectly non-descript as a person, barring her lighter hair but her sister is also cursed with that so it's not a big deal. They look like their mother enough.

"Hello, Kudo-san!" she greets, bowing at him. "It's nice to meet you in person. And your, erhm," she looks back and away. "Fangirls?"

Shinichi nearly chokes mid bow. "Hah! Those two! No, they're my classmates. Ran lives near me and thinks I'm about to get pulled into a sex trafficking ring."

_You have the face for it, _she thinks but doesn't say. "They must care about you an awful lot. Please take a seat!" She gushes a little bit more as he does so, for effect. He doesn't seem to pay it much mind, merely looks at the menu before she falls silent. Then he looks her in the eye and nods, as if having determined now is the time for a response.

"We've known each other since we were kids."

"Ah that makes sense." Mild wrinkle but no big deal. "So! About the house!"

Shinichi nods. "Well, I usually do it myself, sometimes with Ran, but it's been easier when I do it. But… well." His face twists with annoyance. "I keep getting cases and so I come home and have to do all my homework, so I've kept little areas clean but…"

"It's piling up." When he nods she nods back sympathetically. "That was me in college for ages. You adjust. But for now, since you're looking after the place, it's better to be safe than sorry right?"

"Yeah!" He smiles now and it is a nice smile, It's all earnest and endearing. Shiho would eat him. "And Ran over there, the brunette, she volunteered but she has to look after her dad so like…" He shrugs helplessly, face flushing slightly. "I don't want to inconvenience her more, you know?"

Not a wrinkle anymore. She can use this. He's so transparent. "Aw, that's really sweet. I'm glad that's not in the papers."

His flush deepens for a moment and then he sobers, sincerity in his soul. "So am I." He leans closer and says, "Also, um, do you mind if I ask you a few questions now?"

She blushes and nods. "Of course, of course!"

"Good because your hands don't carry the smell from powdered gloves, those slacks are too nice and well ironed to be casual wear, which means you had a fair amount of money in college to not work. You may need something to do but not something to keep you alive. Your fingers are long, so you studied at least one instrument, probably clarinet based on the indents of your fingerpads and the lack of the shelf on your chin. Your hair smells faintly of cherries so you were dressing up for this. Your tone on the phone was more like a teenager but here you speak to me like an adult." He grins, cheek in his eyes. "You're not really a fan of me, are you?"

Akemi doesn't mean to smile but she does. "No, but I think I might like you, Kudo-san!"

Shinichi doesn't lean in his chair, but he straightens, like a child who remembers he's in a public place. "Call me Shinichi or I'll think you want my dad, So, what do you know about book care?"

Three hours and a casual lunch later, and she has the job, she's sure.

She also has Kudo Shinichi's interest, which could be good and bad.

* * *

**_A/N:_** Look it's a crack idea and didn't leave me alone. So far I've got three fics to this universe's name, and no clue what it's going to after that. For now, enjoy fic one!


	2. Chapter 2

_Untagged notes: Shiho's mouth, Gin by rule of mention, autistic coded characters _

* * *

_Chapter Two - Pompous_

"You're _really_ dating a celebrity."

Shiho sounds disgusted, but then, she has no right to talk coming in stinking of Gin and his cigarettes. It'd been a week since they'd seen each other and she was just now paying it any notice. A week! What has she turned into?

Granted it had been two months since she'd taken the job at all. "Don't be jealous I'm cleaning his house."

"I'm sure you are." Her sister sips a flavoured water and makes a face at it before downing it in a few swallows. Miyano Shiho may be meticulous in her work, unnaturally tidy and clever as a whip, but she can be a complete pain in the ass when it comes to riling up her sister. Namely, her table manners are the only American custom she learned aside from the language and a tendency to curse and insult most men in a ten mile radius. Also her ability to angst is unparalleled. Akemi thinks she's met more cheerful war veterans. "What are you really doing?"

"My job." Akemi turns the page of her magazine. "So we can buy you that dress you saw in summer's latest _ComCom_."

"You want my ugly ankles on display, don't you?" Shiho sits primly beside her. "I don't need that. I need you around more often."

"That makes two of us." She nearly snorts up her own drink. Akemi is just going to ignore the ankle comment. "He's not that bad. Shinichi-kun I mean. He helps me out when he's home and he can actually cook."

Shiho widens her raccoon eyes as she changes shirts. "Am I going to find you eloped to France again with this one? I told you sending that dark haired edgy man chocolates was a terrible idea."

Akemi scoffs. "He's back in America and good riddance to that. No, no he's actually just an awkward boy in a big house. If he's with me, sometimes I ask him to pick a book and read. He's got the voice."

Shiho hums, disbelieving. "Do you think he's going to live long?"

"I hope so." She hadn't been called and told otherwise. "He's a good kid trying to do the right thing and being eaten alive for it." She levels her eyes over at her sister. "You two would get along."

"Don't you know I only like bad boys," Shiho deadpans. "Don't set me up with your toy, Nee-san."

It doesn't sting to hear that nearly as much now as it did the first time from an angry, heartbroken Shiho who had returned to Japan to a nearly silent house and Akemi not home for another two hours from work, but instead a babysitter named Matsuda who looked bored at best and sleepy at worst.

"He's hardly a toy, Shiho, and you need to get out more anyway. You're either in the lab, here or in the car to buy time away from the FBI. Come on, come with me to meet him once. He's smart, he'll keep up with you."

Shiho flops ungainly on the other sofa. "Fine," she grumbles. "If only to make you happy."

"You always make me happy,"

"No I don't, don't lie to me."

Akemi smiles under her cola. "I'm a terrible liar, Shiho."

Her sister pauses then lets out a groan into the nearest pillow. "Damn it."

Akemi giggles. She loves when she gets her sister in a logic trap.

* * *

"Cargo pants are not your best look, sis."

Shiho shrugs, unrepentant with her maroon tank top and the beige idea of fabric that stands for pants. "You said he lets you use his washer." She drags the cart of their clothes after her, leaving Akemi giggling afresh.

"He does for his things and mine sometimes. I'm not sure he's interested in folding a girl's panties."

Shiho snorts through her shot of coffee. "Darn I might have to like him, he's not a complete pervert."

Akemi giggles and leads her to the house, well, mansion really. "I'm sure you'll find something to complain about."

"The size of the house is worth more than all you spend on hair dye, is that a good start?"

"Blame his father, the man has a library to die for."

Shiho pauses a little, pretending she's checking for no black cars. "A library?"

"All subjects, mystery, drama, romance, memoirs, you name it it's probably there. Or trying to be." She presses the doorbell.

"Oh no," Shiho drawls through the sound of the buzzing bell. "He's meeting all of my standards."

"If you quote _Undertale _while we're here more than four times, I _swear_-"

The intercom buzzes. "Good morning, Akemi!" The sound of a pan sizzling is in the background which Akemi has learned to interpret as, woke up on time.

Akemi turns back quick as a whip. "Good morning, Shinichi-kun! You sound chipper!" Like she hadn't been about to deck her sister with the duster.

"Yeah! Mom sent me Dad's manuscript! You wanna give it a read when you're done!"

Akemi feels her sister positively perk up like a dog. "Sure! Oh, I brought my little sister with me, can she give it a look?"

There's a pause and then, "Please. Anyone other than me for ten minutes." The gate creaks open as he speaks. "The door's already unlocked. Anyone here not drinking Earl Grey?"

"_What the fuck, _" Akemi hears Shiho whisper under her breath and she can't help her smirk.

"No, you just hit my sister's favorite tea. Good job, Shinichi-kun."

There's a startled bark of laughter and the intercom turns off.

Akemi pauses a moment to watch Shiho struggle for stoicism. When Shiho finishes, all she can manage is, "So… _Akemi_?"

Akemi has the grace to blush. "You weren't _entirely_ wrong yesterday."

"You are disgusting," Shiho offers, striding past her to the unlocked door. "He's seventeen, Nee-san."

"It was a kiss on the forehead, lighten up."

"What are you, his mother?"

Akemi elbows her. "Now who's being gross?"

Shiho huffs and doesn't deign her with a response.

Kudo Shinichi is waiting for them in the living room, dressed in what is clearly a last ditch attempt at not soccer practice clothes. He waves his fingers at them. "Good morning." He hops up and bows, a little playful flourish with the arm. "Nice to meet you, Akemi's sister." He's grinning the whole way, unperturbed by the horror filling Shiho's face.

"Oh dear lord it's worse than I thought, he's an asshole," Shiho manages to say, green eyes aghast. "What is he paying you to let him do that without shame?"

"Donating her textbooks to charity?" Shinichi offers. "What's your name?" He's still amused, Akemi can tell, if puzzled, and probably a bit hurt underneath the cockiness. He's a real sweetheart, she knows and unlike Ran's visible concern, Shiho runs too sugar and ice for her own good.

Her sister eyes him a moment more, debating how much of this is genuine and how much of this is correctly diagnosed asshole. "Shiho," she replies. "I was tempted here by a free washer, a library and puppy eyes. What made you hire Nee-san?"

Shinichi blinks a moment. "I trust her with the stepladder unsupervised? She's believed me about the spiders. She came into the interview and said she wasn't a fangirl, honestly what more could I want?"

"I also like your dad's books," Akemi reminds him.

Shinichi snorts. "That's a black mark. Liking my dad's writing is like enjoying the taste of strawberry lemonade. You can do it but everyone expects you to."

Akemi tries very hard not to laugh.

Shiho narrows her eyes. "So it wasn't her good looks and too-nice personality."

"If he wanted that he'd hire his childhood friend and get it for free."

Shinichi, to his credit, turns red as a strawberry.

This gets her sister laughing, not much, but enough. Enough for Shinichi's shoulders to stop hunching and for him to actually take their laundry himself. While he busies himself with the washer, Shiho turns to her and hisses. "You didn't say he was _like me_."

Akemi grins. "You didn't ask."

Shiho scowls at her. Akemi wisely gets out of the way for future retribution rather than immediate. Also it's better that Shiho doesn't see what she types on her phone.

_Objective complete._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three - Attachment

Miyano Shiho doesn't do closeness. She at best has her sister, her lab rats which are the cutest fuck you Vodka, and Gin who is using her and she's using him so her sister can pretend she goes out clubbing and isn't being chatted up by a guy twice her age or whatever the fuck Gin is aside from a bastard.

So getting along with this random asshole detective was not in her cards and yet he keeps sending her books and expensive Earl Grey tea and other things like they're friends or something. It's only fair she return fire with difficult programming right? And he'd better be getting her sister just as many good gifts. Or _else._

"Don't break my boyfriend's brain," Akemi tells her once in a while. She says the boyfriend part absentmindedly but Shiho has seen her blushing at her phone which means even if Kudo isn't seeing the signs, her sister is having them.

"This is an _operation_," Shiho reminds her and only gets a laugh in return.

"Course it is. I still need to enjoy it."

Shiho rolls her eyes and goes back to her studying every time Akemi waves her off. Or dinner plans. Or some other normal things. She is, despite what her sister says, still a teenage girl.

Or at least she intends to, until two months after meeting Kudo her sister's brought the gaudiest rental car she has ever seen and honked at her like she was the one who had spent time in America.

Shiho pulls down her sunglasses because summer is a bitch. "What the fuck."

It's not her favorite phrase but it's one of them. It's in the top five.

"Get in loser," Akemi says dryly. "We're going shopping."

Shiho twitches as Kudo leans forward from the backseat. "Book sale," he says with a grin. "Someone's trying to publish another Holmes ripoff. I gotta see the train wreck firsthand."

"Shouldn't that friend of yours be responsible for chaperoning you?"

Kudo scowls darkly. "She doesn't appreciate my taste in literature."

"They fought about his Holmes obsession again," Akemi translates helpfully. "Now, get in loser, we're going shopping. I saw a Fusae purse with Shiho stapled to the back."

"Fuck off," Shiho replies offhandedly. But she gets in the car anyway. She might as well benefit from man angst.

"So why did you send me a code for someone's ballistics program?" Kudo asks as soon as they're driving off.

"Was that what that was?" Shiho avoids her sister's gaze from the mirror. "Honestly it was in my book of "How to Lose a Man's Phone Number".

"I'll have you know that book exists and my mother donated to it so I know it wasn't from there." Shinichi flops back on the seat. "Thanks for proving I'm an asshole Shiho."

"I'll do it any time but more politely for a Fusae handbag." She flips through her magazine. "Did you really fight about Holmes again?"

Shinichi flaps his hands. Shiho twitches hers in unison with her sister and she wishes for a fidget spinner. "She's mad I quit soccer last week."

"You play soccer?"

"And I kickboxed for like, a minute. I'm not allowed to do that anymore after breaking dad's ankle."

Ouch.

"You didn't tell me why you quit soccer," Akemi says, so casually that Shiho can tell she isn't lying.

"Because I like watching the sport and fun playing it. The competition sucks." Kudo huffs. "I'm in over my head on this detective business too apparently."

"I mean you're seventeen," Akemi says as she drives. "Everything is over your head."

"I'm eighteen," Shiho mutters, affronted at the comment and the fact that she's agreeing with Kudo at all. Akemi hides a grin in the steering wheel.

The car is silent.

Then Kudo lets out a wheeze of laughter. "Thanks Shiho. Your care is appreciated for my bruised ass ego."

Shiho rolls her eyes but she struggles not to smile for the rest of the trip.

* * *

She carries that day in her as she shoves past Gin to get to the door one evening for one last check up, swearing in English the whole way and fixing her clothes. Still nothing happened but it was better nothing than something she had to hide from her happy sister and her boyfriend. Because that day had been fun and admittedly she'd do it again if only to hear, yes Kudo can do voices and make the best faces when he's on chocolate but she'll never tell him that.

A text chimes on her phone and she almost wants to ignore it but Kudo's taken to sending riddles now. And they break up the monotony while she's testing new formulas and the like and keeping Gin out of her lab, that chemical doesn't fucking go there you piece of trash.

'I am not capable of a beginning nor an end, but I'm perfect in every subjective way. What am I?'

Shiho doesn't even pause, typing with one hand and scribbling notes with the other. 'An unwritten idea. What is it Kudo, it's ten-thirty at night.'

A brief pause. Then she gets, 'How do you tell Akemi no?'

She frowns. What? 'I don't. Why?'

'She's drunk. On my lap. Doing things.'

She can imagine his face and her brow creases. 'Drunk on what?'

'Vodka? No idea. I can't tell them apart yet. But uh, can I call you?'

Shiho hesitates. This sounds like a personal call. But it's also about her sister.

She hasn't even decided until he texts her again, saying, 'She's crying. Wdid?'

Shiho takes pity on him and leaves early. She's not always a crying drunk, but when she is, nee-san has a tendency to run her mouth and that's the last thing they need.

* * *

Akemi wakes up on a couch that's not her own in a house that's not her own. For a moment, she panics in place, body stiff and head aching.

Then she hears the all too familiar sound of her sister sleeping, soft breaths low in her throat, almost snores. She turns her head and there she is with Shinichi, using his shoulder as a pillow. She has one of his blankets over her and he's using his school jacket. They are both clearly out cold. A stack of papers sits under a TV remote and they're breathing easy, softly. Like nothing can go wrong.

Akemi almost wheezes in pain, her headache is a fury, and she is struck by such sadness, such love so strong it almost breaks her ribs, for the two of them. Everything in these past few months, all of this, all of them, is so strong and so much.

Akemi is struck with it all, struck with the force of the love and the force of the pain, and her eye itches with the suffering of it. She would die for them, she realizes, for the person who her precious family sleeps next to without stirring, for the sister who pretends she's above them all but is really just as desperate as she is herself.

And she looks at seventeen-year-old Shinichi, really looks, and sees and sees and hurts for how alike he is to them, and how much she wants to give him, how much of the world she wants him to have but the organization is afraid of. It is terrified of those who could continue on with hope.

Shinichi stirs, perhaps he can hear the way her breath is catching in her throat. "Mm…" he grumbles, all rough sounds and soft carelessness. She watches him, struggling for breath, for air, as he shifts slowly. Shiho stirs a little, but he's still gentle, even as he lowers her down on a couch pillow, and she's back under at once.

Akemi muffles her giggle, fails to because his bright eyes flick to her and the laughter bubbles up through all of the hurt and he's grinning and putting his finger over his lips and that makes it hurt more to hold back. He moves over to her, hands outstretched to help her up.

"Gentleman," she jokes.

"In some alternate universe probably," he agrees. "You look like shit."

"I feel like it." She does, for so many reasons, so many perfectly valid and fair reasons. She makes her sit up and he scoots in beside her without asking and that's another Shiho habit. They don't ask for space, they just take it where it's left.

"Want to talk about it?" he takes her left hand, rubs at the horrible nail job with his thumb. "According to Shiho I officially get her blessing for not being your last boyfriend. I think it means I'm a good listener sometimes?"

Akemi snorts and tastes the beer in her throat. "No, it means she's happy you called her when I was too drunk to see straight."

He stiffens and it's so ramrod straight and quick that Akemi can be forgiven for shifting in her dirty, sweaty clothes. "If… If it helps I'm an expert at hiding a body," he offers out softly. "I… I'm really sorry."

Her cheeks flush. He's being _cute_, god damn him. "Thank you. I was lucky, but thank you. I may need your services for her though."

He, if anything only stiffens more. "_What."_

"Ssh!" Shinichi slumps a little, but his eyes are burning, blazing with that ferocity that she knows burns in her own.

"But-"

"I know." She does, she does, she does, so much more than he but she's so happy he _understands_. It's always a hit or miss with teenage boys. Akemi runs her hand up into his again, plays with the button on his sleeve. "You can see why she's herself."

He looks at her with narrowed eyes, a deep-set frown. "I don't like that," he says after a moment.

The words are childish but she hears what he means and she squeezes his wrist. "Me either." She winces at the pain in her head. Shinichi sees and he blinks, then moves to the side desk and pulls out pills and a water bottle.

"Dad won't mind if you borrow his stash. He likes your reader critiques."

Akemi's cheeks burn but she takes the stuff and lets him get up (despite the terrible desire to _pull him back down, _what had she been thinking last night?) "Does he?"

"Yup, thinks you two are fantastic. Mom's jury is still out." He grins like the first day they'd met face to face. "She's fond of Ran. Doesn't want to see her cry."

"You make Ran sound like a strong girl," Akemi tells him through the pounding in her chest. "She's stronger than anyone thinks."

Shinichi smiles again, this one softer, more brittle. "I know. I only hope it's more than she thinks." And he leaves to make them breakfast.

Akemi watches her sister sleep, waits for the clear head that could come from pain medication. Then she pulls her phone out of her pants pocket and dials.

The line sings for a moment. Then he says softly, "Rum."

"Sir," she says wearily. "I don't think I can do this."

He laughs gently. "Who says you were doing anything at all? Don't worry, my dear. You have another role, and it can't come to an end so soon."

He hangs up. Her blood chills.

Her eye burns and not from the smell of the smoke for the salmon.


	4. Chapter 4

_Warnings: Shiho has a potty mouth, implied sex I guess, canon typical violence, you know what's coming, I know you do._

* * *

Chapter Four - Fractals

She doesn't quite mean to take his first kiss, but Akemi realizes that at some point, there's no such thing as a certain order to things.

She also doesn't mean to take it while his best friend's back is turned but she does and he sputters a little when she's done.

Ran looks at him oddly, her with narrow, concerned eyes. She's such a good person, Akemi thinks. So caring and concerned and open, the world could do with more open hearted women.

"I'm fine," he says as he smooths over where she'd grabbed his jacket in a fit of pique. "Just fine. Just nearly tripped."

"His pant legs are getting long," Akemi tells Ran cheerfully. "I'm not good at sewing, we should practice on his bad clothes together."

Ran nods in return, all smiles and joy at the thought of teasing him (and touching his clothes, likely, she's a teenage girl the same as Shinichi is a teenage boy). "Sounds like fun! I'm sure he's embarrassed himself a lot by now."

"Oh don't worry, I've got details." She winks at her and the girl positively beams.

Shinichi sulks his way out of the room, but she winks at him when Ran's turned around. He flushes again, but says nothing as they go. Nothing at all.

"You are so disgusting," Shiho grumbles as she exits the shower.

"At least I can iron."

"Challenge accepted."

Thankfully, Shiho irons their sheets, not his, whose he'd already folded up neatly before departing and she manages it while not burning them to a crisp.

Akemi fakes applause and gets a pen to the nose for it.

For a few hours they're normal girls in a big house. They abuse the privilege and Shinichi comes home to Akemi giggling so hard on the floor that it hurts and Shiho upside down in his father's chair, skirt riding up and a thick textbook in her grip, also upside down.

"If you look, you're an asshole!" Shiho calls without looking.

Shinichi grunts, cheeks pink. "Then I'll accept being an asshole you anime trash fire."

"I am so offended my hair is turning white."

Shinichi makes to say something but Akemi interrupts him with a smile and a hug. "Welcome home."

The meaning doesn't escape him, because he lights up like a brand new bulb, cheeks alight and joy in his eyes. Oh her heart aches. His parents are alive, how can he be so happy to hear those words if they are alive? "I'm back, thanks."

"How's Ran-chan?"

Shinichi shrugs. "Her dad wants to kill me for taking business, she hates that I get fanmail-"

"Who in their fucking right mind sends you fanmail?"

"Exactly," Shinichi snipes back without missing a beat, gods they're so cute, Akemi wants to shove them together instead just because. "And everyone's looking at me funny so she's been guard doggy lately. I keep telling her not to worry." He waves a hand. "People will notice if I disappear. I dunno if they'd care, but they'll notice."

"We would," Akemi tells him and it's too earnest, she thinks because his eyes narrow. But she doesn't care, she barrels forward anyway. "Who else gives an honest paycheck, a free library, and casual space?"

"Who else keeps not yanking her skirt down?" Her voice has undertones of a catcall and it makes Shinichi snort into Akemi's forehead. Your sister, he mouths at her.

"Shiho I swear to _god," _Akemi groaned. "We were having a moment, a _moment_!"

"Have your moment in bed where I don't have to see it!"

"You can join too," Shinichi offers in the driest voice imaginable.

"Fuck off, the last thing i want to see is my sister's bare chest."

Akemi snorts, losing her ire in a matter of seconds. "Anyway, that's Shiho for "I care, you absolute dunce now stop being morbid and do something else'."

"Such as…?" He's honestly baffled and it's ridiculous.

Akemi grins and pulls him out of the room, laughing over the sink and then the tv broadcast.

* * *

"Don't you like the fame?"

Shinichi shrugs, a little proud, a little dismissive. "It's opened doors, but that isn't much. I'm still in school for a reason. I'm still seventeen. I feel like an adult when I'm there, dissecting the crime, the smartest person in the room. But I'm still a kid to them, wet behind the ears. They're just tolerating me because it's faster and I happen to be ri-" he stops, musses up the sheets she's folding as the radio plays. "Sorry. You're like, out of college or something. You have better things to hear about."

Akemi laughs fondly. "I have worse too. I like hearing this. Now fix these sheets you goober."

"What the heck is a goober?" He pronounces the word like a taxidermy gone wrong and does what she asks.

"Figure it out and I'll make you salmon patties."

"You'll what?" But she's gone, laughing out loud to hide the pained expression in her face.

_At least Akai Shuichi had been a mess of his own making, _she thinks. They want this boy to fall. For no other reason that it will amuse them, or that they can make an example.

"You can't keep doing this," Shiho warns over text.

Akemi, spite and fury in her thumbs, texts back before she can properly control herself. "Then you do it."

She gets a "fight me" in response.

It hurts too much. Because she means it.

* * *

Akemi gets a call at the end of her report. A wheezing voice, a broken cry, the sound of hissing like a steaming faucet before it shatters all at once.

The video call from her boss ends too easily, too… irritably. And then she gets another call.

"_They took my drug," _Shiho is hissing with rage over the line, spitting, protective over her work as a mother is over her children, as a good mother should be at any rate. "Those idiots knocked me out and took my drug samples when they're not done I'm going to _bash in their fucking skulls_ with their fucking car and see how they like it-"

"Gin has your drug?"

"Yes!" Akemi hears heels clacking, Shiho must be running. "They took the god damn samples because I said, so far it's working in an isolated environment and they heard "it's working" because they're _busy fucking in the shitty coat closet and banging the-"_

"Shiho, not the time, really not the time or place. I did not need to know that ever. Where are they supposed to be today?" She's already out of her chair, bounding across their apartment to be presentable. Her heart's in her lungs, her stomach dissolving in her kidneys in pieces.

"Somewhere overpriced and pointless for a money deal, that place all the money deals go, you really think i pay attention to that?"

Akemi grabs her coat. "Yes! Think harder!"

"Ask the genius to think harder, yes okay fine, see how you like it- Tropical Land or something? You know, where the creepy-cute mascot is?"

Akemi stops and shudders, drops her keys.

"Shiho," she says softly, remembering last night, remembering his mumbling through half a sandwich about going with Ran to celebrate something she hadn't thought about and going grocery shopping after. "Shinichi is supposed to be there."

Shiho goes silent for thirteen seconds. Then, very softly, "I am dashing those fuckers' brains _against a god damn wall_."

"Not if I don't do it first." Because she can and she will, gods she will do anything now for them. "Get to the nearest stop. I'm heading over."

"Break a few laws on the way." And the line goes silent.

Akemi is more than happy to, _more than._

She floors it.

* * *

They find him, Shinichi had snuck passes into Shiho's wallet somehow weeks back when they'd been in the middle of a pillow fort contest or something inane and now they're running through the dark. Shiho had given up her heels for wearing and was deciding to use them as bludgeons if the opportunity arose, Akemi had never seen her this angry, this raw and hurt.

She hoped she'd never have to again.

Akemi sweeps the flashlight around and sees, something small, a pile of something and she makes a distinct sound of dismay because she knows what she's going to find-

And she's wrong.

There's a small body, a fragile looking body with blood trailing down one side of the face, trapped in clothes that are too big. And yet he's breathing, ragged harsh pants and small terror sounds.

Akemi looks at Shiho as she gets closer.

Shiho stares a moment, then she swears so fluidly a sailor at port is blushing.

"This is why I said it was _experimental,_" she whispers. "And they didn't even bother to _check_. I am getting them fucking fired for this shit, I swear."

"Let's enjoy this stroke of stupidity while we have it," Akemi says, because her heart is still throbbing in her ears mixed with the guilt that only your own mistakes having consequences you have to deal with can provide. "Anyone asks, our little brother knocked his head on the bench and we're taking him home."

"Sounds like something he'd do anyway."

And they escape into the darkness as they always have.

But as they flee, Akemi can't help but think those days are steadily coming to an end.

Her real eye throbs.


	5. Chapter 5

_Warnings: self-esteem issues, past violence, Shiho saying fuck, implied racism_

* * *

Chapter Five - Lies

They don't take him home, they don't take him to his anyway. They take him to a safe house Shiho has left unbugged and untouched for years barring a dusting every once in a while because she doesn't trust the Japanese not to be assholes in a different way from Americans.

Shinichi stirs awake eventually, thank gods, and Shiho confirms a lack of a concussion, also thank gods.

Akemi makes the mistake of hugging him and nearly causing him to pass out again.

"What happened?" he wheezes. "Why are you _taller_? Why is my nose in your chest?"

"Our coworkers drugged you and tried to kill you?" Shiho says before Akemi can lie fast enough. She turns to glare at her and gets a shrug. "What's the point in not telling him? He'll figure it out anyway."

Shinichi shakes dizzily, rubbing his head. "I'm getting blood on your shirt," he tells her, as if she's not noticed. Gosh he's small, he's so tiny, how did this happen? She looks to Shiho, who shrugs.

"It's only happened once to a rat." She pretends to wrinkle her nose and mean it. "Of course he's an exception to all the rules."

Akemi hears what isn't being spoken which is, _I'm still going to turn those shitheads into pretzels but for now I'm glad you're not dead._

He makes a minute noise. "Two guys in black, doing a job I guess. I followed one and the other one hit me from behind and-" Shinichi shudders hard and Akemi knows exactly what Gin did. Gin likes to get personal, even if the person's going to die he likes to have them see his face because he knows he's not getting caught. He's escaping just fine.

"Don't," Akemi says and she feels the childish pout form on her sister's face.

"I wasn't," she says, eye twitching.

"You were, and you are not going back there. Not until tomorrow when you can get supplies."

"Then I shouldn't go back there at all. It's called avoiding suspicion."

"You fail at that more than I do."

"You two… you really work for them."

Shinichi's voice, and therefore his brain, sounds steadier now and it makes Akemi _ache_. "It was suspicious," he continues in this awful monotone, especially for a kid, like he can't see the horror on her face. "Two sisters being nice to me. Two people being nice and not caring who my parents are and what skills I've got. I should have known, it was just-"

"Finish that sentence and I break your nose and your kneecaps." Shiho says this so calmly but Akemi is half-sure she's poised to find a baseball bat and carry out her threat, which is child abuse right? Definitely. "This was not fake. This was not some game to walk you into the arms of those two adrenaline junkies with guns and pipes and too much free time. You're the first guy my sister's stuck around me and not threatened to elope to France with. And…" She struggles for a moment. "You're the first person to _look at me and not care what I am._ We'd never want you to die and we'd never want them to kill you."

The whole time Shinichi has looked at her without blinking, too absorbed in the idea of her words (or possibly her) and then, only then, does the poor kid cry his eyes out like he really is a small child.

"Idiot," Shiho says in a watery voice without meaning it, and sits beside them.

Akemi smiles wetly at her, and acknowledges she would do more than die for them.

Eventually they feel like they can pretend to be human beings again and she says, "So what's the plan?"

"We can't take them out by ourselves," Shiho says flatly. "We probably can't even leave."

"Why are you even there?"

"Blackmail and dead parents, like Batman."

"Shut up Shiho," Akemi grumbles. Her head's starting to hurt, and her sister's utter blase approach to stressful situations was going to screw them over one of these days. "It's true but you shouldn't say it."

"What, is it like being an American alumni?" Shinichi sounds disgusted. "Your parents were in so you got grandfathered in?"

Akemi chews her lip. "I mean… pretty much."

"That's fucked up." He says it so plainly. God it hurts.

"Children don't swear," Akemi chides.

"You didn't because you were a good child," Shiho said with a snort. "I on the other hand caused havoc with ugly hair and punching kids in the nose."

"And cursing, don't forget the cursing."

Shinichi makes another pained sound and Shiho grimaces. "I should examine you."

"Now who's the pervert?" Shinichi counters and he sounds too old. "Do I… we can't go to the police, right? They'll arrest you. They'll destroy everything we've got. They probably won't believe me anyway." He scowls to himself. "No one believes children."

There's probably a story behind that. But Akemi's going to focus on how much he wants to preserve _them_ in the meantime.

"They likely have people in the police, they do everywhere else," Akemi says. "Best not to risk it. So… we'll rest today and figure something out tomorrow. But… what about your girlfriend?"

"You're right here," he says with that earnest baffled look of his and Akemi muffles a laugh.

"She means the nice one, idiot."

"Ran?" He grows pale. "I … crap I left her, she's going to be super worried. She'll probably go to my house. And if I'm not there she'll call the police.

Shiho looks around. "So we'll head back then." She smiles slowly, one of those grins she uses when she's about to ruin someone's day. "I've got an idea."

"Oh hell," Shinichi whines.

Akemi doesn't laugh. Loudly.

* * *

Mouri Ran is, if nothing else, predictable. She is there when they arrive, tugging at the bars of the gate and fiddling around for her spare key in her pockets. Against his will, Shinichi is fast asleep in Shiho's arms, something both parties are exceedingly embarrassed by, but Shiho is handling it the best that she can in this situation. Namely with the ugliest pullover hoodie covering her face so it's not recognizable and with a terribly obvious cold mask and reading glasses.

Not that Akemi can blame her, Shiho has never seen Ran and Ran hasn't seen her and really they want to keep it that way. One of them has to be able to make it out of this intact.

Ran whirls on them with the ferocity of a mother tiger. "Have you seen Shinichi?" She demands. "Did he go to your house instead? He was saying it was closer to Tropical Land!"

Akemi flushes so hard it takes all her sister has to remember to breathe. "He-He said that?" Okay, calm down, calm down Akemi. "No… he wasn't at my house. I came here… I thought he'd still be here."

"Still be here?" Outrage, fear, concern. "He left me a little while ago. I thought he was just… making an excuse to…" She's wilting and it hurts to look at it really hurts.

Akemi softens. "No, he… he called me. He was pretty upset. He said he saw someone trying to leave a child in the park. The kid ran away from him. I think this is him." She gestures to the sleeping child, who hasn't shifted much so he's probably awake now. "But anyway, he sounded upset. What parents would leave a child in a park and run off? That kind of thing."

She watches Ran's face twist and burn with fear and hurt. "He could have told me. I'd have definitely helped him…. After…"

"You just saw someone die," Akemi tries gently because he had said that. He had said it dismissively about himself.

"My dad's an ex cop and a detective." She tries to sound the same, tougher than she gives herself credit. "I've seen plenty."

Shiho draws breath and Akemi steps on her foot because no, it's not normal, and no, you don't get used to it but she can't say that. "I'm sorry to hear that," she says instead for them both. "But he sounded in a rush. He was off to find out more so fast. I think… I think the whole thing really shook him. He said he saw some weird guys around."

"Does he think they might be involved?"

Akemi waves a hand as her blood runs cold. "Honestly I don't know, but he wanted to go underground for a bit, see if there's a pattern in the whole thing. I don't think he meant to worry you."

Ran struggles, swallows, aches, but then she smiles, a little teary. "He's too nice for his own good sometimes. When he's not being a jerk."

"That's the sign of a good friend I think."

The sky begins to open up and rain patters the ground. "Let's get inside," Akemi suggests and they do, watching Shinichi squirm under the blanket they'd found folded up in a box.

Ran watches him. "So that's the kid he found," she whispers over the creaking of the gates. "Poor thing."

"He's less willing to run at the prospect of food."

Shinichi peeks his eyes open and then closes them. He plays along.

Ran smiles. "He's a cute kid. What's his name?"

"Dunno yet," Akemi says with a private smile. "Hopefully he'll tell us when he's ready."

* * *

**_A/N:_ **And this marks the end of this fic! It was going to continue on but I need some time with a different pov and to decide where the story's ending will be. The next fic, _observing icarus_, like this one, will come out when the last chapter is written. Thank you so much for reading, and I'm hoping next fic has more Ran!


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